Power cut forces FBCCI to end press conference demanding electricity early

Business leaders took off their coats and started using papers for fans before ending the press conference

An outage has forced the FBCCI to cut short its post-budget press conference demanding unbroken electricity supply to ensure uninterrupted industrial production.

As Md Jashim Uddin, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industries, started reading out their formal reaction to the government’s spending plan for 2023-24 fiscal year, a power cut plunged the FBCCI office in Dhaka’s Motijheel into darkness on Saturday afternoon.

Minutes later, power was restored by the private generator at the building and Jashim finished his statement. He then took questions from journalists.

When he was answering the third question, the generator stopped working. People in the room lit mobile phone lights as the question-answer session was paused.

With the air-conditioners off amid the heatwave, those in the room started sweating. Jashim and Sameer Sattar, president of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, took off their coats and started using papers as handheld fans for a bit of comfort.

Jashim answered two more questions with light from TV cameras and ended the press conference hastily.

After the power cut hit the building, Jashim said: “Darkness is expensive. No matter what’s the price, there’s no alternative to an uninterrupted power supply. But power production costs should be cut as much as possible.”

He advised the government to prioritise extraction of coal for the power stations and boost solar power production instead of importing fuel to ensure supply.

The FBCCI demanded more allocation for the power and energy sector in the budget.

Frequent power cuts are affecting daily life and industrial production heavily for quite some time with many power stations unable to supply due to a shortage of imported fuel triggered by a dollar crunch.